They are unlikely to be aware of the fact, but the inhabitants of London Zoo are playing their part in the fight against climate change, and all thanks to the copious quantities of “zoo poo” they produce.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has just signed a new six year contract with waste management firm ACM Environmental Plc that will see the company continue with work that has seen it divert up to 98 per cent of the waste from London Zoo and Whipsnade Safari Park from landfill.

Central to the waste reduction efforts is the strategy for handling the tonnes of manure produced each year by the zoos animals.

ACM has developed a process whereby herbivore poo is composted and used as high quality farm fertiliser, while carnivore waste is taken to anaerobic digestion plants in Belvedere and Colnbrook for conversion into usable energy.

The company is hoping that the flagship project can provide a template for other organisations to follow, although admittedly it is a rare company that has access to zoo poo.

“We want people to see that any form of organic waste is a resource,” explained ACM marketing manager Jo Hage. “We want to get the message out that there are options for processing this waste in a really environmentally friendly manner. If you have livestock are a food manufacturer, or work for an organisation that produces organic waste material then waste to energy is now an option.”

In addition to zoo poo, the company has to handle 22 different waste streams from ZSL, including hazardous and clinical waste as well as more conventional recyclable waste from the zoos visitors.

The company has identified closed loop or environmentally friendly recycling options for the vast majority of the waste streams and is now investigating how it can make the sites fully “zero waste”.

“Two per cent is all that is left after diverting all the waste possible from landfill,” the company said in a statement. “It mainly consists of the fly ash from incinerators, which go for deep burial in order to prevent air pollution. Essentially, this is ‘zero waste to landfill’ solution. We will continue to identify new advancements in technology for alternatives wherever possible and the programmes we run with ZSL are continually adapted to ensure they are at always at their most efficient.”